Life goes on...

A couple of months ago we got an English mastiff puppy, which probably isn't what most newly retired couples long for. We weren't in the market for a dog at all, and a dog the size of a pony even less, but we all know how that goes. Friends of ours know a breeder who had a litter of ten puppies, and they were looking to give the runt of the litter to a good home. He was their favorite, and they didn't feel that they could sell him since they didn't expect him to be the GIANT dog that a mastiff person would want. Our friends said that no, they couldn't take on another dog, but they knew just the couple who might be interested. And here we are.

When my husband received the email about the puppy I was online, reading a story about an English Army munitions specialist who was killed in Afghanistan. I pretty much knew right then and there that he'd be our dog, and that his name would be Ozzie, for Oz, the soldier I'd been reading about. We had to wait a week to see him, but finally there he was. At six and a half pounds he was less than half the size of the rest of the puppies in the litter, and skinny, with a pitiful looking mottled coat. In other words it was love at first sight. The other clincher to the deal was that he would be eight weeks old and ready to go home on my husband's birthday. So we fell for this tiny little puppy who needed us, and eleven weeks later he weighs about fifty pounds, and is exactly the bouncing baby boy mastiff you'd expect him to be.

Marilu, of course, knew all about Ozzie, and how he came into our lives. If she thought we were crazy she didn't say so, being a dog lover herself. I mention all of this because this morning Ozzie came in from the back yard with a frog leg hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Goofy dog. But it's this sort of thing that was so much fun to tell Marilu about. She'd have said that it was quite the visual.

For the last few days weather has been dreary, rainy and overcast. Very appropriate for how I've been feeling since I got the news about Marilu. I spent the rest of that day staring at the computer screen, willing another message to come through. It didn't work. But today, finally, the sun came back out, and Ozzie had a frog leg hanging from the corner of his mouth. And I dug up two more of those darned stinkhorns out of the front yard. Much as I hate to face it, life goes on. It sucks, but it goes on.

Just sayin'.